In The Aeneid, Vergil's hero fights to claim the king's daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word in the poem. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes the reader to the h
Category: Fiction

In a richly imagined, beautiful novel, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voice. In The Aeneid, Vergil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills. Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner—that she will be the cause of a bitter war—and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life. Lavinia is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.
Category: Fiction

An exceptional combination of history and mythology - 'an intriguing, luxuriously realised novel' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Like Spartan Helen, I caused a war. She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her. I caused mine because I wouldn't be given, wouldn't be taken, but chose my man and my fate. The man was famous, the fate obscure; not a bad balance.' Lavinia is the daughter of the King of Latium, a victorious warrior who loves peace; she is her father's closest companion. Now of an age to wed, Lavinia's mother favours her own kinsman, King Turnus of Rutulia, handsome, heroic, everything a young girl should want. Instead, Lavinia dreams of mighty Aeneas, a man she has heard of only from a ghost of a poet, who comes to her in the gods' holy place and tells her of her future, and Aeneas' past... If she refuses to wed Turnus, Lavinia knows she will start a war - but her fate was set the moment the poet appeared to her in a dream and told her of the adventurer who fled fallen Troy, holding his son's hand and carrying his father on his back...
Category: Fiction

With contributions from top scholars in the field of negotiation, this clear and entertaining volume effectively blends technique with theory to present frameworks for effective negotiating, analyses of person-to-person negotiating situations and applications in organizational settings. Building on the concept that conflict, when managed well, can provide the impetus for growth, constructive change and mutual benefit, the book is dedicated to breaking the paradigm of winning and losing and transforming negotiation into a search for improved solutions to problems.
Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Caroline Scott Harrison was the friendly, enthusiastic and intelligent wife of the twenty-third President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison. She was a graduate of Oxford Female Institute in Oxford, Ohio, where her father, an advocate for women's education, was president of the school. In 1889, she walked gracefully into the limelight of the First Lady's position, confidently assuming leadership in a number of activities and accomplishing much through the next three years. She had little fear of performing social duties in Washington. She learned to use the power of the First Lady's office to influence special requests. When Johns Hopkins Hospital asked her for help in raising funds for their medical school, she challenged them to improve the status of women. And establishing the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution as the first president general required much more responsibility than an honorary chair implies.
Category: Biography & Autobiography